Product Distiller Evidence Packet: What to Capture Before a Decision

The direct answer

Assemble reviewable evidence for turning agent session evidence into a reusable product package without turning assumptions or producer claims into proof. The working output is A claim-to-evidence packet with provenance, freshness, contradiction, and NOT_TESTED fields.

For Product Distiller, the bounded capability is turning agent session evidence into a reusable product package. Begin only when the team can supply Claude or Codex session logs plus an explicit product goal. The documented delivery target is the catalog's fifteen-artifact product package; anything broader requires a new scope and a new authority decision.

The copyable evidence packet

This evidence packet is for teams with successful Claude or Codex sessions that cannot yet be replayed, tested, or handed to another operator. It begins with Claude or Codex session logs plus an explicit product goal and stays inside the documented workflow: session freeze, provenance extraction, contract recovery, procedure definition, replay fixtures, test mapping, decision records, and certification gates. For Product Distiller, the evidence packet remains reviewable because its decisions have named owners, evidence fields, and stop conditions.

The Product Distiller evidence packet keeps each claim separate from its source and from the reviewer decision that accepts or rejects it. For this evidence-packet task, a URL or file name supplies provenance but not automatic proof; an executor saying “done” remains an assertion until a separate observation supports the exact criterion.

Machine-readable evidence row

{
  "claim_id": "CLM-01",
  "claim_type": "OBSERVED",
  "content": "Source sessions are frozen and inventoried.",
  "evidence": "attach a direct readback or test receipt",
  "provenance": {
    "source": "named path or system",
    "observed_at": "ISO-8601",
    "method": "inspection or test"
  },
  "status": "NOT_TESTED",
  "contradictions": [],
  "reopen_if": "cleaning a transcript without extracting a contract"
}

Contradiction rule

When two admissible records disagree, retain both and mark the claim REVIEW. Do not average incompatible observations or choose the convenient one. The independent certifier records what changed, which evidence applies to the current boundary, and what must be rerun. When required evidence is unavailable, the status stays NOT_TESTED.

Run the workflow as a sequence of decisions

The Product Distiller evidence packet follows this working sequence: session freeze, provenance extraction, contract recovery, procedure definition, replay fixtures, test mapping, decision records, and certification gates. Within this artifact, each phrase marks a state boundary for turning agent session evidence into a reusable product package. A stage output becomes the next named input, while a failed, missing, or unavailable check keeps the dependent evidence packet decision closed.

Separate failure register

• FAIL-01: Cleaning a transcript without extracting a contract.
• FAIL-02: Converting interpretation into observed fact.
• FAIL-03: Replay that relies on hidden operator knowledge.
• FAIL-04: Tests that cover only the successful source run.
• FAIL-05: An artifact package with no reopen conditions.

The register supplies negative cases for the complete acceptance set. A reviewer determines affected checks from observed evidence; array position never asserts that one failure proves or disproves one criterion.

The producer can explain what it attempted, but the independent certifier evaluates the evidence. If the artifact changes, its prior verdict expires. This is especially important for turning agent session evidence into a reusable product package, where a plausible narrative can hide a stale configuration, an untested negative case, or an authority mismatch.

Failure and recovery drills

A useful Product Distiller evidence packet explains what happens when its happy path breaks. These drills come from the accepted product truth record rather than a claim that every buyer has each failure. Use safe synthetic or authorized observations for turning agent session evidence into a reusable product package, and keep private credentials out of every fixture.

1. Cleaning a transcript without extracting a contract.

Detect for Product Distiller: product owner captures a direct readback or safe fixture that makes this evidence packet condition observable. Its record binds source, time, method, and the current ART-11-02 fingerprint.

Contain the evidence packet: stop only the affected Product Distiller path after observing “cleaning a transcript without extracting a contract”. Preserve its failed material and last verified state instead of erasing evidence or blindly repeating an external effect.

Recover and prove: apply the smallest authorized Product Distiller correction, then have a distinct reviewer re-evaluate the complete accepted check set. Do not select one check merely because it shares this failure's list position. If any affected evidence packet check cannot run, its result remains NOT_TESTED.

2. Converting interpretation into observed fact.

Detect for Product Distiller: session analyst captures a direct readback or safe fixture that makes this evidence packet condition observable. Its record binds source, time, method, and the current ART-11-02 fingerprint.

Contain the evidence packet: stop only the affected Product Distiller path after observing “converting interpretation into observed fact”. Preserve its failed material and last verified state instead of erasing evidence or blindly repeating an external effect.

Recover and prove: apply the smallest authorized Product Distiller correction, then have a distinct reviewer re-evaluate the complete accepted check set. Do not select one check merely because it shares this failure's list position. If any affected evidence packet check cannot run, its result remains NOT_TESTED.

3. Replay that relies on hidden operator knowledge.

Detect for Product Distiller: procedure author captures a direct readback or safe fixture that makes this evidence packet condition observable. Its record binds source, time, method, and the current ART-11-02 fingerprint.

Contain the evidence packet: stop only the affected Product Distiller path after observing “replay that relies on hidden operator knowledge”. Preserve its failed material and last verified state instead of erasing evidence or blindly repeating an external effect.

Recover and prove: apply the smallest authorized Product Distiller correction, then have a distinct reviewer re-evaluate the complete accepted check set. Do not select one check merely because it shares this failure's list position. If any affected evidence packet check cannot run, its result remains NOT_TESTED.

4. Tests that cover only the successful source run.

Detect for Product Distiller: test owner captures a direct readback or safe fixture that makes this evidence packet condition observable. Its record binds source, time, method, and the current ART-11-02 fingerprint.

Contain the evidence packet: stop only the affected Product Distiller path after observing “tests that cover only the successful source run”. Preserve its failed material and last verified state instead of erasing evidence or blindly repeating an external effect.

Recover and prove: apply the smallest authorized Product Distiller correction, then have a distinct reviewer re-evaluate the complete accepted check set. Do not select one check merely because it shares this failure's list position. If any affected evidence packet check cannot run, its result remains NOT_TESTED.

5. An artifact package with no reopen conditions.

Detect for Product Distiller: independent certifier captures a direct readback or safe fixture that makes this evidence packet condition observable. Its record binds source, time, method, and the current ART-11-02 fingerprint.

Contain the evidence packet: stop only the affected Product Distiller path after observing “an artifact package with no reopen conditions”. Preserve its failed material and last verified state instead of erasing evidence or blindly repeating an external effect.

Recover and prove: apply the smallest authorized Product Distiller correction, then have a distinct reviewer re-evaluate the complete accepted check set. Do not select one check merely because it shares this failure's list position. If any affected evidence packet check cannot run, its result remains NOT_TESTED.

Ownership and handoff

For this Product Distiller evidence packet, the adjudication role is independent certifier. That role judges frozen acceptance evidence for turning agent session evidence into a reusable product package without becoming the product owner, legal adviser, security authority, or buyer. Its handoff retains open gaps, failed evidence, changed hashes, and the next action permitted for ART-11-02.

Evidence and acceptance

Use these product-specific statements as candidate acceptance checks:

• Source sessions are frozen and inventoried.
• Observations are separated from design judgments.
• The procedure runs in a clean context.
• Normal and failure fixtures map to requirements.
• Open assumptions remain visible.

For every Product Distiller evidence packet check, retain the tested object, environment or source, observation time, method, expected result, actual result, verifier identity, and artifact hash. In this ART-11-02 record, label a direct readback OBSERVED, a reproducible transformation COMPUTED, and an interpretation JUDGMENT; never merge those states into one confident claim.

The admitted Search Console packet contained no article-specific demand observation for this exact topic. The page is therefore justified by its distinct operator job and product truth, not by an invented volume estimate. Performance remains unknown until measured after an authorized release.

The product boundary remains controlling: Distillation can organize observed execution evidence, but it cannot manufacture missing provenance, prove product demand, or certify a result outside the stated gates.

Implementation checklist

• The evidence packet names the distinct reader job: Assemble reviewable evidence for turning agent session evidence into a reusable product package without turning assumptions or producer claims into proof.
• The input boundary is explicit: Claude or Codex session logs plus an explicit product goal.
• The intended deliverable is explicit: the catalog's fifteen-artifact product package.
• Every required acceptance check has current evidence or an honest NOT_TESTED status.
• At least one negative fixture covers cleaning a transcript without extracting a contract.
• The independent certifier is distinct from the artifact producer.
• Rollback or reopen conditions are written before consequential action.
• No ranking, traffic, conversion, compliance, certification, or buyer-outcome guarantee was added.

When this Product Distiller evidence packet has a failed item, repair that named item and rerun its dependent checks. Keep the frozen threshold intact; the remaining checks cannot establish that the failed ART-11-02 condition probably holds.

Related campaign guides

These four crawlable links cover the other Product Distiller operator artifacts. Each leads from the current evidence packet to a different reader task and promised artifact, rather than to a keyword variation of this page.

• Product Distiller Input Contract: Required Fields, Rejection Rules, and Handoff
• Product Distiller Operator Runbook: Daily Checks, Escalations, and Handoff
• Product Distiller Control Dashboard: Signals, Alerts, and Review Cadence
• Product Distiller Change Protocol: Versioning, Canary Tests, and Rollback